Hyannis West officials criticized for Lego gun incident

Barnstable school officials are facing criticism from as far away as Arizona and Colorado over the decision to reprimand a Hyannis West Elementary School student who pretended to fire on fellow students last week with a toy gun he made out of Legos.

HYANNIS – Barnstable school officials are facing criticism from as far away as Arizona and Colorado over the decision to reprimand a Hyannis West Elementary School student who pretended to fire on fellow students last week with a toy gun he made out of Legos.

In a statement released Thursday, Barnstable Public Schools Superintendent Mary Czajkowski reiterated her position on the incident, which school officials said made other students uncomfortable.

“Parents and other members of the community have a right to expect educators in our schools to address any potentially harmful or threatening situation swiftly and appropriately,” she wrote in the statement. “The teacher and school principal acted in accordance with school and district policy.”

The firestorm erupted online and over the airwaves based on reports about 5-year-old Joseph Cruz, who school officials reprimanded after they say he repeatedly aimed a toy gun built from plastic building blocks at other students and made shooting sounds during an after-school day care program.

Day care director Mary Beth Curran told Joseph’s parents he would be suspended from the program for two weeks if he received another written reprimand.

After Joseph’s parents spoke with several media outlets about the situation, a heated debate began on social media and talk radio that included comments both blasting and bolstering Curran’s response.

School officials have received 31 emails, including from Arizona and Colorado, and five phone calls, mostly critical of their actions, Czakjowski said Thursday.

“They were disturbing to say the least,” she said about the emails.

Many of the responses indicated the writer believed the boy had been suspended, which is not true, she said.

Instead of trying to find out more information about what happened, many people simply called for the firing of school employees, Czakjowski said.

About 30 teachers at Hyannis West Elementary School recently participated in a week-long training session for what is called the “Responsive Classroom” approach to teaching and learning, Czakjowski said, adding that the concept includes behavior standards and expectations.

At Hyannis West, 90 percent of the students receive free and reduced lunch, and many of them have not attended preschool or kindergarten previously, meaning they have not interacted in that type of environment before, she said.

“Some children are coming in with no structure, no guidelines for expectations, for how to behave and how to act,” she said.

Curran laid out clear expectations for behavior in the after-school day care program and despite repeatedly warning Joseph that his behavior was unacceptable, it continued, Czakjowski said.

Czakjowski said she is disappointed Joseph’s parents did not reach out to her to discuss their concerns about the reprimand before going to the media, adding that she has yet to hear from or contact Joseph’s parents, Sheila Cruz and Octavio Cardosa.

The family’s attorney, George MacKoul, said Cruz spoke to Hyannis West Principal Kathi Amato about the incident and was told the superintendent would investigate.

Nothing came of it, however, and Cruz was told the school wouldn’t change its position on the reprimand, MacKoul said.

Cruz never received an explanation of the school’s policies, and there was no attempt to work with the family or Joseph, he said.

If there was a policy to support the written warning, it would have been easy enough to include it with the letter Cruz received, MacKoul said.

“We’re not struggling with their need to keep kids safe; we’re struggling with how they do it,” MacKoul said.